DEI DOS AND DEI DON’Ts

DEI is an acronym that we see a lot in the news today. For the acronym impaired it stands for Diversity Employment Initiative. For some it is a plan to discriminate against more qualified (usually white) applicants in favor of less qualified members of subgroups like Blacks, Latinos, oh and let’s not forget Women.

Years ago, it dawned on major corporations that 14% of their customers were Black 18% were Latino about half were women. It made a lot of sense that their work force should look like, talk like and walk like their customers. The results were clear. Diverse workforces had better outcomes. They retained a wider base of customers and delivered a significant advantage to the bottom line. Police Forces were able to more capably handle domestic violence with women on the force. The list of benefits to all institutions is impressive.

DEI THE NEW N WORD

DEI has now become an epithet. You can almost say it has become the new N word. Hurled at any one not white and male in a position of power and leadership. No matter their qualifications no matter their background. They are portrayed as an example of a failed meritocracy. No matter their experience and qualifications the inference is that they are of lesser competence.

So now the question becomes who decides what merit is? Dominant cultures tend to believe that the attributes of their own culture that they prize are the qualities that represent true merit. At its best it is an innocent lack of perspective. At its worst it is a sinister, self-serving prejudice.

On the one hand we celebrate the melting pot of cultures. We love it in cuisine, art, music, literature. Not so much when it comes to defining what qualities makes someone a better employee, a better soldier, a better police officer, a better leader.

This country was a brutally racist and sexist culture. A fact that many would like us to forget. In the last seventy-five years we have come a long way. Some of the initiatives to correct the sins of the past were ill advised.  Other have been hugely successful. We have benefited as customers, citizens, students and employees.  

DEI NO LONGER DEI STILL

Today a vocal minority of shareholders have convinced companies like Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Amazon, Ford, Target and META to abandon their DEI initiatives. Others like Costco, JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have informed their stockholders that they will continue. We all know what this current administration is doing.

This country became great because it was a melting pot of divergent cultures. We are all part of that soup. Sadly, it seems there is a movement afoot that only those defined by the dominant White Anglo-Saxon culture will get to stir the pot. Let’s hope it is a phase. As Winston Churchill once observed, “America will always do the right thing, but only after it has tried everything else first.”